Watch: Family with two young children booted off of Delta flight for the dumbest of reasons

Et tu, Delta? A new viral video making the rounds shows a family with two young children being kicked off of a Delta flight due to a strictly enforced airline policy regarding who is allowed to fly under a purchased ticket.

You see, back in the day, if you purchased an airline ticket you were free to give it away to a friend if you couldn’t make the flight, or even sell it if you so chose. Over the past few decades, though, security considerations prompted airlines to clamp down on such behavior. And let’s be honest, it’s primarily a way for airlines to squeeze even more money out of prospective passengers who are forced to purchase tickets directly or even shell out cash for pricier refundable tickets.

Which brings us to the viral video of the hour. The man featured in the video below is told that him, his wife, and his two children — aged 1 and 2 — need to get off of the plane. The reason? The name attached to the younger child’s seat belonged to the man’s 18-year old son who happened to get on a different flight earlier in the day.

The man in question is flummoxed and refuses to budge, repeating time and time again that he purchased the seats and that he can use them how he wants. It’s not an unreasonable argument, especially given that a small child is at the center of the controversy. With not an even an iota of common sense on display from Delta personnel on the plane, the man at one point is informed that if he and his family doesn’t budge, they will all spend the night in jail. What’s more, the man is flippantly told that once they depart the plane, they are on their own, which is to say there’s no talk about getting them on another flight or even giving them a refund.

The video description reads:

Here is a video of Delta airlines booting myself, my wife and my 2 children ages 1 and 2 off delta flight 2222 April 23 from Maui to LAX. They oversold the flight and asked us to give up a seat we purchased for my older son that my younger son was sitting in. You will hear them lie to me numerous times to get my son out of the seat.The end result was we were all kicked off the flight. They then filled our 4 seats with 4 customers that had tickets but no seats. They oversold the flight.

Not only that, but the family was kicked off of the plane at midnight, forcing them to find a hotel room at the last minute. And adding insult to injury, they were forced to purchase new tickets.

Now to be fair, the airline protocol at play here is well-established, with most airlines opting to play hardball when it comes to changing a name on a purchased ticket or transferring a purchased ticket to another party. Still, one would like to think that airlines could exhibit even a bit of common sense in these types of situations.

The best comment we’ve seen on the ordeal — if you’re in the mood for a good laugh — reads: “Also, now knowing Delta kicks babies off their flights kinda makes me want to fly Delta. They could change their slogan to “We love to fly in peace and quiet, and it shows” and see a huge boost in ticket sales.”